Man On U.S. Army's 'Most Wanted' List Nabbed After 37 Years

Unidentified military police captains depart the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 2007. Jones escaped from the U.S. Army's maximum-security prison in 1977.

Orlin Wagner
/ AP

Originally published on March 14, 2014 12:53 pm

James Robert Jones was arrested without incident on Thursday, 37 years after he escaped from the U.S. Army's maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he was serving time for first-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Jones, 69, was on the U.S. Army's 15 Most Wanted list. He was taken into custody as he showed up to his job in Pompano Beach, Fla.

The Associated Press says:

"Army investigators discovered Jones might be living in Florida and in January asked the U.S. Marshals Service to help locate him. The Marshals Service used a facial recognition database to find a match with a picture on a Florida's driver's license issued to Jones in 1981 under the name Bruce Keith."

"Members of the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force surveilled Jones' residence Thursday morning and followed him to Pompano Beach, where they arrested him without incident when he arrived for work, the Marshals Service said.

"A positive fingerprint match was taken from Jones at the Broward Sheriff's Office, according to the Marshals Service.

" 'He stated that he knew this would catch up with him one day... After all these years, the first words out of his mouth was, "I knew this would catch up with me one day," ' Barry Golden of the Marshals Service, tells NBC."

Jones had been serving a 23-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth for murdering a fellow soldier at New Jersey's Fort Dix in 1974. He escaped in 1977.